An 87-year-old war veteran has sued the U.S. government in federal court alleging the Palo Alto veterans hospital failed to treat his glaucoma for more than four years, causing him to go legally blind.

The government has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit filed March 25 in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, said Kim Staskus, a San Jose attorney representing plaintiff David E. Woodward Sr.

Woodward was one of eight VA Palo Alto Health Care System, or VAPAHCS, eye patients who received letters disclosing that improper care at the facility may have resulted in their vision loss. In February 2009, the veterans hospital initiated a three-month internal review of 381 charts and found that 23 glaucoma patients experienced “progressive visual loss” while receiving treatment in the hospital’s optometry department, the Veterans Affairs office in Washington, D.C., told The Daily News last summer.

The veterans hospital placed the chief of optometry on administrative leave after it determined his staff hadn’t followed an internal policy requiring them to refer glaucoma patients to physicians for treatment. The optometry chief later retired.

Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can cause vision loss and blindness by damaging the optic nerve, according to the National Eye Institute’s website. It is not curable.

The hospital’s optometry department saw Woodward in August 2004 and noted in his file that glaucoma was “suspected,” according to the lawsuit. However, he received no treatment for four years and five months despite subsequent visits.

Woodward is now legally blind, with more than 90 percent visual fields loss and progressive optic nerve damage, the lawsuit says.

“But for the failure of VAPAHCS to properly oversee and supervise the optometry section of VA, plaintiff would not have suffered the aforementioned damage to his eyes,” the document states. “Further, said negligent medical treatment proximately caused a need for invasive glaucoma surgery in both eyes, with the left eye needing further surgical revisions.”

Staskus said he submitted an administrative tort to the hospital on Woodward’s behalf last September. However, after receiving no response from the Veterans Affairs office by the six-month deadline, Woodward decided to sue.

“They did not even try to resolve the case at the administrative claims stage, which is pretty disappointing because the guy is 87 years old,” Staskus said. “He’s got basically no peripheral vision now. That severely impacts your enjoyment of life, and with glaucoma, unfortunately it’s irreversible. It’s a tough thing to handle in your golden years.”

The veterans hospital said it settled one glaucoma patient’s claim for $87,000. Staskus said he is representing two other patients, one of whom is considering a settlement offer.

“A number” of claims are still in process, said Dr. Stephen Ezeji-Okoye, deputy chief of staff at the veterans hospital.

“The reason for us making an institutional disclosure was that we felt that there were opportunities to intervene and opportunities to make different treatment choices that weren’t always presented to the veterans,” Ezeji-Okoye said.

However, “it’s certainly possible to get the absolute perfect treatment and still get progressive vision loss,” he added.

Ezeji-Okoye said he can’t comment on Woodward’s specific case but noted that the optometry and ophthalmology departments now work under a single chief.

“We’ve combined them basically as a single service,” he said. “They have developed referral guidelines and are making sure there’s joint education and training.”

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